Fix-it Friday: How to Spit Splice

You may remember my last post about joining a new yarn. I suggested that you simply tie a new yarn onto the old strand and keep knitting. This method turns out the be quite controversial - read the comments from that post and you'll see! Some of you knitters really hate to have any knots in your knitting.

This time, I've decided to post about a different method for joining a new yarn. The spit splice. Yep. It's just what it sounds like! This method uses spit to help felt the tail of the old ball of yarn to the tail of the new ball of yarn. This only works with animal fiber yarn, not with plant fibers or synthetics.

Here's how the spit splice join works. (I get most of my knitting done on road trips - so this series of photos was taken in the car! can any of you busy people relate?)

1. Untwist the plies to open up the strands of the old yarn for about 2 to 3 inches.

2. Open up the plies of the new ball of yarn for about the same length and lay the two yarns end to end, so that they overlap:

3. Spit onto the yarn ends and rub your hands together with the yarns inside. Some people cheat and just use water, tea, etc., but for this to be an authentic spit splice, you know what the essential ingredient must be!

4. You can stop agitating the splice when the yarn ends are all smoothly felted together:

You can see that the spliced yarn is no wider in diameter than the original yarn - you'll never even know it's there! Here is my splice in place in my knit fabric... can you see it?

The spit-splice (or felted join) is nice if you’re working with all-wool yarns, but I’m fond of the Russian join for yarns that aren’t all wool. It’s seamless–though it can get a little bulky the first time you try it–and works nicely with yarns that are different colors.

It is as permanent as the yarn is in any other place. What you are doing when you use this join is “spinning” the wool into yarn. Over time, with wearing the garment it becomes stronger as the fibers tend to slightly felt. A knot, however, will eventually come apart and you will have a hole that will be difficult to fix.
Also, we should not worry about spitting on the yarn. Saliva has certain enzymes that make the join of the wool permanent. Any germs in the saliva will die over about 24 hours. Plus, don’t you always wash your garment before wearing or delivering it to a client? Don’t you block it? Problem solved.
This only works with animal fibers because other fibers do not felt.

Personally I use water if splicing but then I tend to knit for other people. I was horrified when I read the word spit!

I don’t splice much though as my knots are hardly visible once I’ve finished weaving in and I don’t actually knot the two strands until I’ve knitted a few rows up. I tie them once, tightening them on the next row so as to maintain the pattern evenly.

Don’t you block your knitted pieces? Germs that might be in the saliva would die off quickly, so I really don’t see the problem. Plus saliva has enzymes that create this bond in the fibers. Water does not.

You can fix this. When you unwind the plys, cut a couple of strands off so that it’s the same thickness after you have felted. Hot pink knots on YouTube demonstrates this perfectly on her spot splicing video.

Just a suggestion: keep rubbing the yarn join between your palms. Also, you can remove some of the fuzzy fiber in the yarn ends to make it come out thinner. I always find that if I keep rolling the join between my hands, it comes out the right size.

I have used the ” spit join ” cause I hate knots in my work especially in socks and weaving in ends is not my favorite thing to do. I found a video on youtube for the Russian Join. I use this method for non animal fibers and it works great!

I wanted to do the split splice for my shawl, but after rereading the instructions it isn’t suitable for my beaded silk with sequins yarn……sigh! I will remember this next time I’m knitting wool though.

Thanks Stephanie! I did notknow that you could do that. To the others I don’t know about the ‘spit splicing’ though. Thanks for mentioning the russian join Cindy! I found that video and I will be using that join in the future!

When I do this I unravel back each end and separate the ply. Then I go back about 3 inches on each piece I’m going to join and cut out one strand on each. Then when you felt them together they are the same thickness as the yarn you are using.

If you have more than two plies in your skein you should cut one out of each so that it is no thicker than the original. However if you keep rubbing long enough it should fine down so that it is not a thick splice.

I’ve felted wool joins with great results, though I use water if that option is available. I’ve had mixed results with the Russian join; it often turns out too bulky. Another method that I’ve used for many years is weaving in as I attach a new yarn in; done in the same manner as if knitting with two different color yarns in pattern. My biggest challenge is how to join cotton yarn especially if knitting in the round–no seams to secure the ends into.